Of the 18 projects presented, a third are devoted to the Great Patriotic War and the Siege of Leningrad, while several others overlap with this theme. A consistent set of perspectives runs through it, each serving a particular purpose in constructing the canon of memory.

“United by War: Evacuation from Leningrad and the Return Home” (TsGA) and “Leningrad Reborn: 1945–1949” (State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg; National Library of Russia; TsGA; Central State Archive of Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg, or TsGAIPD; Central State Archive of Film, Photo, and Sound Documents of St. Petersburg, or TsGAKFFD; Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg, or TsGALI; and Central State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation of St. Petersburg, or TsGANTD) frame the beginning and end of the ordeal, from forced flight to the city’s reconstruction and the beginning of the arms race - a link between wartime memory and the geopolitical competition that followed.

“Children and War” (TsGA; TsGAIPD; TsGAKFFD; TsGALI; TsGANTD; St. Petersburg Regional Public Organization of Former Child Prisoners of Nazi Concentration Camps; Museum of the History of the St. Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity; State Museum of Political History of Russia; Museum of the History of Vocational Education at the Palace of Student Youth of St. Petersburg; and National Library of Russia) and “The Leningrad Komsomol During the Great Patriotic War” (TsGAIPD) shift the focus to the younger generation.

“80 Facts About the Siege of Leningrad” (TsGA; TsGAIPD; TsGAKFFD; TsGALI; TsGANTD; and Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg, or TsGIA), timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the lifting of the siege, and “Crimes of the German Fascist Invaders in Leningrad Oblast” (TsGAIPD; TsGA; and TsGAKFFD) both rely on archival evidence to substantiate their narratives.

Finally, two exhibitions that do not appear at first glance to be about the war form part of the same canon. “Granin’s Time” (TsGALI) is organized around Daniil Granin, the writer who took testimony of siege survivors to inform his book on the subject. The exhibition draws primarily on the largest collection of Granin’s personal papers - Fond No. 107, comprising more than 2,000 files. Meanwhile, “Veterinary Services During the Great Patriotic War and the Siege of Leningrad” (TsGAKFFD; St. Petersburg State University of Veterinary Medicine; Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense; State Archive of the Russian Federation; Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History; TsGA; and TsGAIPD) incorporates new professional communities into the memory of the war.

This comprises exhibitions seemingly concerned more with the state’s current priorities. “The Establishment and Development of Russia’s Battleship Fleet, 1860–1945” (TsGAKFFD; Russian State Naval Archive; Central Naval Museum named after Peter the Great; and Military Medical Museum of the Ministry of Defense), marking the 320th anniversary of the Baltic Fleet, covers the period from the Crimean War through the end of the Great Patriotic War. “St. Petersburg’s Contribution to the Exploration a of the Arctic in the 19th and 20th Centuries” (TsGA; TsGIA; TsGAIPD; TsGAKFFD; TsGALI; and TsGANTD) serves a similar purpose. The exhibition’s eight sections, ranging from Arctic expeditions to “heroes of the Arctic,” construct an image of St. Petersburg/Leningrad as the historical center from which the exploration and development of the Arctic began.

A separate, less conspicuous group consists of exhibitions devoted to professional communities and their institutional memory. “Knights of Light” (TsGANTD) is an exhibition about construction of hydroelectric power stations. Covering 15 sites - including prewar Soviet construction projects and contemporary projects abroad - it presents an image of continuity within the Russian engineering tradition. “The Architecture of St. Petersburg: A Link Between Times” (TsGANTD; TsGIA; and TsGAKFFD) performs a similar function for urban planners and restoration specialists. The exhibition focuses on 11 ordinary residential buildings. Finally, a personalized version of the same theme appears in “Through an Architect’s Eyes: Irina Bukhman” (TsGALI; TsGA; and TsGAKFFD), which takes Bukhman’s documents and drawings to portray the profession as a sphere of individual creativity.

Despite the exhibitions’ prevailing military-patriotic theme, a group of projects devoted to everyday urban life and local identity remains, without any overt militaristic framing. “City Names, Then and Now: St. Petersburg Toponymy in Archival Documents” (TsGA) reconstructs the history of the city’s name through each of its renamings - in 1914, 1924, and 1991 - as well as the history of its administrative boundaries. “The Demands of Beauty: The Fashion Industry in St. Petersburg from the 18th to the 20th Century” (TsGA; TsGIA; TsGAIPD; TsGAKFFD; TsGALI; TsGANTD; Russian State Historical Archive, or RGIA, Leningrad Region State Archive in Vyborg; St. Petersburg State Theatre Library; and St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design) traces three centuries of consumer culture in 14 periods, from Peter the Great’s Europeanizing reforms to the arrival of Western brands in the 1990s. “Childhood Hygiene in St. Petersburg and St. Petersburg Governorate” (RGIA; TsGIA; TsGAKFFD; and Pushkin Leningrad State University) approaches prerevolutionary everyday life through the issues of children’s health. “A Sacred Duty, a Noble Duty” (TsGIA; TsGA; TsGAKFFD; RGIA; and State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg) traces the institutional continuity of the city’s representative government from the City Duma established under Catherine II, through the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies, to the present-day Legislative Assembly.

“Wonders of the Shelves: Surprising Finds in the Archive” (TsGAIPD) assembles disparate and sometimes accidental discoveries from the archive’s fonds, ranging from cat whiskers to an autolithograph portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky. The project is interesting as a counterexample, showing that despite the thematic constraints around exhibition programs, archivists retain some room for playfulness and humor.